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My saturday game got called off, and there is essentially no other games availabel, so I turned to my other sport now of rugby league. I have Elmbridge U14 vs Eastern Rhinos. Any advice to be given?

Any other advice?

Thanks
Cody

why do it to yourself? are you nuts..Don't be so stupid...Pull your head in and just wait for an appointment!

What fun would that be, it's been a while since I was doing my first game of something. There won't be reappointment they are all full, and talked to reappointments and there shouldn't be a game and he said we can keep a free weekend so I took the chance to go ref league on Saturday and may do football Sunday

Re: My first game

I'm going to tell my mother some guy in Indiana is being mean to me, and calling me bad names. I don't feel that this is a bad thing, it's off-season training, think of the fitness benefits I will gain.

Re: My first game

Gentlemen, this is the Rugby League forum, where we help people referee Rugby League. There is another thread which you may certainly use for the other use.

Anyway.

Priority #1. Coaches will forgive your ten metres being inconsistent if you're keeping control of the tackle and ruck area - they know who the new faces are and will adjust their expectations. Should be relatively easy because most U14s in the South haven't yet been taught how to control the tackle; they just tackle and then let go on their own, which is nice and probably how the game should be played. Pick up the high shots, keep the markers square, and that's 75% of the job.

The rest of all this is optional to remember; it's nice to know but you'll be forgiven for forgetting it a couple of times, while a high shot is a high shot is a high shot.

Penalty advantage is almost never played; the tackle count doesn't reset unless you actually give the penalty, so unless there is a line break + try-scoring chance within a couple of seconds, ping it. Six more tackles is 99% of the time more of an advantage than ~20m of field position.

Advantage from a knock-on or forward pass; if the ball is recovered cleanly by the other team, wipe count down, and advantage is played until the player in possession is tackled (and if you're going to continue, it's always zero tackle, regardless of how much ground he's gained) or passes the ball; if he runs 10m forward and is then put into touch you usually will come back for the knock-on; if he picks the ball up and flips a dumb pass straight to an opponent, that's his own stupid fault and play on.

The other thing about penalties; you may get asked if they can "take ten". There's a league rule that says if there's some sort of obstruction that makes it unfeasible to kick penalties for touch without losing the ball for more than 30 seconds (lots of trees, a large hedge, a high fence, or similar), then you can have the ball advanced 10m upfield and then taken out wide to where the tap would have been taken if you had in fact kicked for touch. The key thing is that you only take ten if there's a good reason, and only on the side where the obstruction(s) are.

40/20 shouldn't come up because they aren't good enough at kicking to use it.

Wait a couple of seconds and then point to the spot for a try, not up to the sky. If you are unsure as to grounded/held up/knock-on, award the try. If the defenders wanted the benefit of the doubt they shouldn't have allowed the attackers in-goal. Penalty signal should have your hand just in front of your face, not up on the 45. Give the scrum signal every time you award one. Knock-on signal is two hands pointing down, kind of like your Union forward pass signal except smaller. Forward pass is one arm indicating the flight of the ball; all secondaries are basically miming what happened.

Obstruction: only penalise if the obstructed player is physically obstructed from making a tackle or getting at the loose ball, or if the tackled player steps across into the first marker after playing the ball. There is no such thing as "crossing". Only penalise offside and not-square players if they join a tackle or force a pass; try if you can to shout them offside or not square and they should stop and GTFO.

Ball comes loose in the tackle: ball steal vs knock-on is probably the hardest decision there is to make, sell it hard even if you're guessing and nobody will argue; 1-on-1 is a fair steal, but if there are ever two or more in the tackle it's always 2-on-1 even if all but one drop off before the remaining guy steals it.

Ball going dead in-goal; it's the last player to play at the ball before it goes dead who is charged with making it dead and the restart goes against him, even if he touched it in-goal.

Remembering the tackle count: every time they flip it wide, or the player going a mazy run changes direction, repeat it to yourself.

Scrum management: don't take them through CTPE. If you need a command to encourage the players to pack down, it's "heads in", and they will form the scrum themselves; there are no rules about binding. Pushing is allowed, but don't let the push come until the ball is fed and it won't be a problem; U14s will probably be more concerned about breaking quickly to reset the defence than trying to be manly. Defending halfback must stay next to his loose forward until the ball is out, he cannot follow the ball. Ball is out when it has passed the second row (don't nitpick it, though, give the attackers a chance to get it away) and it helps your management to call it out; the loose forward can detach and pick up, but he can't hold the ball at his feet unless he wants to get scragged.

Have fun, and don't try to remember all this at once. Tackle and ruck, get used to the strange new positioning, and then it'll come to you.

Re: My first game

Originally Posted by ckuxmann

I'm going to tell my mother some guy in Indiana is being mean to me, and calling me bad names. I don't feel that this is a bad thing, it's off-season training, think of the fitness benefits I will gain.

Jamo lives in Michigan. You should know Midwest geography. Michigan is right across the lake from you.